Waiting on God

Not long ago in a sermon I told our church family the story of John Claypool. Claypool wrote a book, The Light Within You, where he recounts the story of his young daughter who had been diagnosed with Leukemia and was in a great deal of pain. One night in the hospital she asked him, “Daddy, when will my pain go away.” And John said, “Honey, we’re doing everything we can to get rid of it.” His daughter then asked, “Daddy have you asked God when my leukemia will go away. Have you asked Him daddy? What did God say?”

Claypool writes that he didn’t know what to say to her. “What do you say to a little girl when God seems as if he is not listening. What do you say,” he writes, “when the heavens seem silent.”

Some of the most difficult days of our lives are those times when God seems like He is a million miles away; when He seemingly is not answering our prayers. God promised in His word to always be with us, but all of us have had days when it seemed as though He were giving us the silent treatment. Job experienced those days and in Job 23:8 Job said, “I go east, but He is not there. I go west but I cannot find Him. I do not see Him in the north for He is hidden. I turn to the south, but I cannot find Him.”

Maybe right now there is some issue in your life and you have found yourself wondering where God is.
• Maybe it’s a disease you have been diagnosed with and are wondering if God notices
• Maybe it’s a rebellious child and you’ve asked God to help; but your child just dives deeper into rebellion
• Maybe you’ve been abused and the pain is deep and it just won’t go away and you wonder if God even cares
• Maybe you have a decision that you need to make but there is no clear picture as to what you should do. And God is not helping you see what you should do. He’s silent.

I’d like to suggest some lessons we can learn when God seems to be silent.

1. Expect it to be difficult – when you seem to have a promise from God and yet find yourself waiting on His perfect timing, it is difficult. But know this, God is using that difficult period to mature your faith. Harold Wilke was born with no arms and one time when he was a preschooler he was struggling to get his shirt over his head and shoulders. He said, “I was grunting and sweating and my mother just stood there and watched.” A relative turned to his mother and said, “Ida, why don’t you help the child?” His mother responded through gritted teeth, “I am helping him.” Sometimes God stands by in silence and does nothing because it actually helps us mature. James 1:2 says, “My brothers and sisters, think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. After all, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (CEB).

2. Be careful not to get ahead of God – when we take matters into our own hands rather than wait on god, disaster happens. Abraham and Sarah decided not to wait for God’s perfect timing and so Abraham had relations with Hagar. Today we still see the consequences of that sin as they got out in front of God. Sometimes the best way to determine God’s will for our lives is to do nothing but simply wait and allow things to play out. That is often hard to do; but it is the wisest thing we can do. Considers these verse in the book of Psalms about waiting. Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 38:15 “I wait for you, O Lord; you will answer, O Lord my God.” Psalm 130:5, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope.” And you know what we should do while we wait on God? Pray.

3. Finally, when God is silent, don’t try to understand Him - We should never try to understand or interpret what God is doing because we will never fully understand His ways. In Isaiah 55:8 God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My way, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways.” In other words, don’t try to understand God because His ways are beyond our comprehension. I have found that we may never truly understand God’s plan for us completely in this life. God never promises us that we will understand fully what He is doing. He just asks us to trust. The apostle Paul was imprisoned, tortured, stoned, hated and rejected. And yet in great faith he penned Romans 8:28, “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him.” Paul just trusted that God was working things out for good.

On a wall in Cologne Germany were some Jews had been hiding from the Nazi’s these words were scratched, “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I don’t feel it. And I believe in God even when he is silent.” God has a plan for each of us. He loves us, the question is do we love Him enough to trust Him?